Hi there.
I decided to join the forum to get great advice and share ideas on smallholding. I live in Essex with husband (supportive but suspicious of my smallholding dreams), 3 children (excitable but helpful), labrador (crazy crazy crazy) and 4 chickens in a purpose built run in the back garden.
I became interested in raising pigs after coming face to face with some at a local farmers' market, then tasting the meat and being hugely impressed with the flavour of organic, happy meat. I would really like to get a few pigs but:
1) I have no idea how many I should start with
. I would like enough so that they were happy, but not so many that we had a glut of meat. It would just be for the family to begin with, then I'd get more pigs if we were any good at it.
2) I have a busy job so wouldn't be able to do all the looking after myself. I could really do with advice on just how much time per day / week / month I or someone else would need to spend on it. I also need to be able to go away for a few weeks at a time several times a year, so if anyone has ideas or experience on how this can be dealt with I would be very grateful. I am quite happy to pay for someone to do the "pig-sitting" if that was what is needed, but am really not sure how I would go about finding this sort of person / labour. I appreciate this all makes me sound like a "fairweather" smallholder
, but I am genuinely keen to produce my own food from happy healthy animals
. Keeping a few chickens suits us well, as they take care of themselves over weekends and my P.A. and I work from home enough of the week for her to do any small jobs that need doing with them when I'm away.
3) I have no idea what the cost of a weaner is
4) I currently don't have enough land but could probably find some locally. How much land would I need for my minimum number of pigs?
Any answers? ideas? advice??? All suggestions welcome and looked forward to.
Many thanks, and great to find such an enthusiastic forum